Health Policy Briefing
Canada needs a workforce action plan to tackle overlapping crises in mental health and overdose deaths
Canada is grappling with overlapping crises in mental health and overdoses that are outpacing the capacity of the mental health and substance use health system to respond. While governments across the country are taking steps to increase access to mental health and substance use health (MHSUH) services— including a recent federal government announcement of $500-million to […]
Moving beyond Band-Aid solutions to deliver health care fit for kids
The Conference Board of Canada estimates the annual costs to treat anxiety and depression in young people to be $4-billion, which balloons to nearly $1-trillion over a lifetime without timely interventions.
Answering a call for help can save a life, but what comes next is just as critical
With 12 Canadians dying by suicide every day, the government has set up a national three-digit helpline. But a compassionate response can’t end there. It demands the availability of real help for Canadians in mental distress, before and after they hang up the phone.
Budget’s ‘slow rollout’ pharmacare funding leaves program vulnerable to change in governments, say policy experts
The Liberals know they need to ‘crawl before they run’ when getting provincial deals done, says former Liberal staffer Muhammed Ali. But it’s ‘a pipe dream’ they will be able to ‘show benefits before the 2025 election’ says former Ontario PC staffer Carly Bergamini.
Feds must expand pharmacare to include essential drugs for our deadliest diseases: cancer, heart conditions, and stroke
An expanded pharmacare framework offers a lifeline for millions of people in Canada. It is time for federal, provincial, and territorial governments to deliver it.
Protecting public health care has never been more important
National pharmacare will be extended to 3.7 million Canadians with diabetes and nine million Canadians of reproductive age.
All hands on deck for the future of health care
One major gap that health providers have identified in testimony before the Standing Committee on Health has been the lack of high-quality, comparable data across provinces and territories.
Getting everyone a ‘front door into the health system’: Jane Philpott weighs in on fixing health care, and her future in politics
‘I feel that it is a fundamental responsibility of anyone who is an elected official… to collaborate with other orders of government to be able to make sure that health care works,’ says the former health minister.
‘Overtaxed and overburdened’: cannabis industry suffocating under regulatory regime as feds take puff past excise relief in budget
Cannabis Council of Canada’s Paul McCarthy says he’s ‘bewildered’ at the feds’ lack of action despite growing calls from industry, experts, and a House committee.
